CHAPTER 26
"DENSE"
"Will you be happy with me?"
"What brought this on?"
"I guess I can't believe how lucky I am."
The phone rang and his demeanor changed from ammusement to annoyance. He pulled away from her and left the room; with a heavy heart, she reached for the phone and smiled at the voice at the other end of the line. General O'Neill needs her at the SGC; she will go to him. Pete will get over it. She knows how to deal with him, she does not know how to deal with Jack.
"I see you're going…"
She stoped at the door and glanced back at her fiancé. He will do this every time and she will just clench the door handle a bit harder each time. Turning around she smiled a fake smile that Jack would recognize as such. Pete how ever bought it and smiled back at her.
"It's my job and you're lucky I didn't get called sooner."
"Hurry back babe."
"You know I will."
He didn't notice her flinch at the word babe, didn't hear the fake enthusiasm in her voice. He's happy with what he's getting; so he kissed her good bye. Getting into her car, she wondered about her life yet again. Driving towards the SGC, she wondered what General O'Neill wants with her; he has the bad habit of calling her at the worst possible moments.
For a brief moment, she wondered just how he did it, and thought that maybe he was spying on her. The thought left her mind. Even if he could, she knows Jack O'Neill would never do that to her, he would never spy or pry into her business. She frowned when the voice inside her head reminded her of Pete's indiscretions. She reprimanded that annoying little voice, telling it that in a real relationship there are no secrets, but she shuts up. She is only trying to convince herself.
Arriving at her lab, she saw Daniel glancing at some magazines. He is hiding from Jack, that much she can tell. He smiled and waved her in. Now she knows there is definitely something wrong. Sitting beside him she could feel that he is tense about something.
"What's wrong?"
"Jack is angry. Walter and Siler did something that freaked him out."
"How so?"
"They caused a system failure. The iris wouldn't open and we almost got a team killed."
"We?"
"I was..."
She knows Daniel and how sometimes he forgets the world around him when he is caught up in his work. Placing an arm around him, she tried to reassure him, but it didn't work, especially when she sensed his presence entering her lab. Turning towards the entrance, she could see the anger and annoyance and Daniel immediately tensed up. He knows when not to deal with the General
"Carter, sorry to have disturbed you, but I need you to check Siler's work on the iris control."
"Yes sir."
"Just be quick about it. I don't want you moping around here."
Daniel's body tensed even more and Sam frowned. She wondered what had happened and was about to reply to General O'Neill but he is long gone. Turning towards Daniel, she saw that he was more uncomfortable than ever before. Something had definitely been said between them. That something involved her; hence Jack's comment and Daniel's detached look. He was definitely going to try to avoid the subject. She was not going to let him, of course.
Daniel had been hesitant and distant from her ever since she had started to date Pete; she knew her friends didn't trust Pete. Daniel had tried to befriend him as he had Teal'c. Jack on the other hand would have none of it; as far as he was concerned Pete had put his team in danger and was not trustworthy, a sentiment that he shared with the most unlikely of all people, her best friend, Janet Frasier.
"What was that about?" Sam asked Daniel.
"We had a discussion."
"About?"
"Pete and you and your day off…"
This was one subject she did not like to talk about. Her personal life was her personal life; she didn't want it to be base gossip, especially when the gossipers were General O'Neill and Daniel Jackson. Taking a deep breath to calm herself, she wondered just what the hell had Daniel been thinking. He knew how Jack felt about Pete.
"Daniel…"
The warning tone was a dead give away that she was beyond angry, but was trying to calm herself. He was grateful for that. She always gave him time to explain his actions before rushing into the barrage of whys and so on.
"I know! It was just… it was your day off… I just mentioned it…"
"How did you mention it?"
"My exact words?"
"Daniel!"
"Don't you think you should let her enjoy her day off with Pete? Maybe you're calling her because that's the case."
Those were his exact words and Sam cringed. Her anger had jumped to mortification. Glancing at Daniel, she wondered just what the hell had possessed him to say that to the General. He smiled nervously at her; he had to have been distracted. He always did that, reading something and then babbling his thoughts when he thought he was actually thinking them. That sucked. Taking a deep breath she wondered just how she was going deal with this.
She had always prided herself on her work and being professional to no end. Now, with Pete and Daniel's blabber mouth, she didn't know how the hell she was going to keep herself that way. Walking towards the main computer room she saw Walter and Siler trying to figure out what had gone wrong with the iris. General O'Neill was behind them glancing at their work.
"Sir that's not helping."
"Just get to it Carter. I have off world teams that need to get home."
"Yes sir."
He was not General O'Neill the friendly guy, he was General O'Neill the get the job done guy, and it was all work until the problem was fixed. She smiled at Siler and Walter, whose relief was evident. She shook her head and wondered just when Siler was going to get the hang of the systems. Looking at the screen she frowned. This was new and a challenge was always good for clearing up her mind.
"Sorry about ruining your evening Colonel." (Who's speaking?)
"Huh?"
"We didn't know you had plans. If we had known we wouldn't have started the debugging."
"Guys its ok, I…"
"More work less talk."
O'Neill's voice boomed from behind them and they cringed. He was mad all right. What disturbed and un-nerved Sam was the fact that he was glancing at his watch. He couldn't have plans could he? Then again by the way he was looking around, it seemed that was the case and she didn't like it one bit. Looking towards him yet again, she decided to take the initiative and come straight out with it
"What's wrong sir? Hot date tonight?"
He glanced at her and she saw a frown on his face, a cheeky smile and raised eye brow from her part. Surely he was just going to kid around and make a joke out of it.
"As a matter of fact, yes. Now please hurry Colonel."
She was mortified. She could see Siler and Walter flinch at the tone of his voice; the curt reply told her he was being intentionally rude, mean and hurtful. He had humiliated her; turning towards her work, she cursed him and that damn woman, that young and attractive woman that was dating him. She'd disliked Kerry ever since she had seen her in his office. She'd known there was more to the story and now she was beginning to get the picture all too clearly.
She finished in record time and began to initialize the program. Iris control was back, gate functions were normal; she had done her job. Standing up she headed into the General's office. He had left the control room a while back, probably to call his girl and tell her he was going to be late. What a bastard she thought and smirked.
"Sir every thing is fixed and ready to go."
"Good."
"Anything else?"
"No, you can go enjoy your day off."
"Excuse me?"
"Go enjoy your day off."
"What is that supposed to mean?"
She didn't know why she was asking. She just knew she had to. His surprised look was all she saw. He was confused and angry. Confusion was wining over, but she wanted an answer, she wanted him to say something, she wanted an excuse to hate him, to be angry at him.
"That I'm sorry I spoiled your day with Pete. You were with him today right?"
"Yes but I…"
"See, now there, I interrupted your time with him and I apologize. I'm sorry if I was wrong."
His apology was nothing more than a bald faced lie and she knew it. He was being an ass. She couldn't come right out and call him on it, but she knew this was all a sham. She smiled and decided to play his little game.
"No, it's okay, we still have later tonight."
A wink, a smile, and she was off. She had won that round. She felt drained. Reaching her lab, she slumped down on her chair, held her head in her hands, and wanted to cry. She couldn't, she wasn't that kind of woman; she was strong and she didn't make mistakes. He was the dense one, he was the stupid one, he'd had his chance and he had done nothing. It was all his fault.
He was just so dense and yet a small voice in the back of her head told her the same thing about her. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. There was nothing wrong. She'd almost convinced herself and yet a faint memory of a talk long ago with her mother reared its ugly little head.
Love cannot be explained.
But why?
Its just a mystery of life.
I read it a chemical induce state of mind.
Maybe so, but when you're in love, you will see that brains have nothing to do with it.
What do you mean mom?
Love comes from the heart, not the mind and some times that is all that matters.
That was the first time Samantha Carter had made a promise. She'd try to find the answers to the great mysteries that were out there; she was going to solve this problem called love. She smiled at the memory and shook her head. She was so naive and dense back then but then again she had only been 11; so she was allowed to be that way. Now she was older than 11 and she was still as dense as ever when it came to love.
Some things simply couldn't be explained. Love was one of them. She was learning that the hard way.
continued